Florida man spouts religious diatribe at podium.
On Day Three of the Republican National Convention, several luminaries from the Great State of Florida will shower us with words (though "Trump" may be among the least oft-uttered for the more ambitious among them).
Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio are among those listed to speak, Scott wasn't able to nab a prime slot. Tim "Touchdown Jesus" Tebow was also scheduled to speak, but he didn't show up.
It's unclear why Scott didn't get a prime-time spot; at first we thought the hotness factor was at play, but then we remembered Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is speaking after Rubio.
We are going to try to remember to tally each time they say "Trump," given that they all have some degree of political ambition.
While some polls show Republican nominee Donald Trump doing reasonably well against presumptive Dem nominee Hillary Clinton, many Florida Republicans are trying to stay as far away from Trump as they can lest they be associated with his… colorful utterances. For example, we have only spotted two U.S. House members of the 17 Republican members of Florida's Congressional delegation so far. Both are from solidly Republican districts. We know for a fact Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly is skipping it; he's now running for reelection in his seat in Pinellas County's moderate, Democrat-leaning 13th Congressional seat.
Rubio, who you'll recall dropped out of the presidential contest in March to focus instead on running for president in 2020, has rejoined the race for the Senate seat he hopes to hang onto. We generously estimate he'll mention Trump twice, instead focusing on Hillary Clinton's emails.
Scott, meanwhile, may try to grab a Senate seat in 2018 (brace yourselves: nonstop footage of his deposition is coming), though the rich (and critics would say fraudulent) business-guy-turned-Supreme-Leader line is kind of his schtick. Let's say five times.
We actually think that, despite being tied to the Trump University scandal (she didn't want to join New York in a lawsuit over the phony degree program), Bondi will mention him the most. She's terming out in 2018 and we aren't quite sure of her political ambitions (all of the non-cabinet state-level seats seem to have a Republican heir apparent), but we know she has them.
Otherwise, why would she be here?
Aside from the fact that Cleveland is really, really cool, we mean?
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2016.